What You Hold On To
by setphaserstosass
Summary: Wrackspurts and all, Neville was mad about her.


**A/N: **I personally loved that Neville and Luna were a love interest in the movie. ** Many others have done their take on this missing scene. Here's my version. :)**

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><p>What You Hold On To<p>

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><p>He finds her, finally, afterward, kneeling in the wreckage of the battlements. There's blood crusting her nose and upper lip, but he only sees that when she turns her head; her hair curtains her off from the despair around her as she holds the hand of a boy that lies fallen. He looks not much older than twelve, twelve at the most, Neville thinks, and grief presses down on his lungs and heart and fills up his throat.<p>

The boy's eyes look forever at the starry sky. Luna closes them with her fingers and sits back, legs underneath her, and sees Neville for the first time.

Her face is almost calm but her eyelashes shine wet and her cheeks are pale. She has a cut on her chin and a black blue bruise that plays over her cheek and the bridge of her nose. Her romper is covered with dirt and blood and the shoelaces of those silly, ridiculous, strawberry-patterned trainers are undone, and Neville has never felt a feeling that is comparable to this moment, seeing Luna Lovegood bloody and messy and dear to him regardless, as she meets his eyes with her silvery gray ones.

His legs feel weak; the world seems watery. Maybe he is dead. She's alive- so there is a heaven after all.

"Luna," he whispers, and finally, his face crumples.

_Be strong, Neville, keep it up, be brave- be brave for Gran, be brave for everyone that needs you, be brave for Harry and Ron, be brave for Luna, keep it together, tell them what to do, the DA looks to you now- _he has repeated these words in his head over and over, these last few months. He has held himself together, he has fought for what he believes in, and they have won. He has not allowed himself to mourn, only to go forward, and it is over and he can mask himself no longer.

Voldemort is dead, and she _lives._

He sways, and sinks to his knees in the violence of his relief, hands splayed on the stones outside the great hall; and somehow she's already there; she kneels too and holds him, presses her face into the crook of his neck. His heart is shaken and somehow she's there to catch him.

And he's touching her, she's real and warm and alive, and beneath the dirt and sweat she smells very faintly of plums. And at this last detail, he's gone. He cries into her shirt and into her hair, tears of the grief that overwhelms him and of the relief that's stolen his voice, tears he could not stop if he tried. He wets her shirt with tears and snot and she does not care. Her own face is wet, remembering the people they have lost.

Kneeling there, in the wreckage, they continue to embrace long after their tears have stopped. When he again regains control, it is only to lose it once more; he pulls back to look at her, and then he kisses her face, her cheek, the corner of her mouth, soft and desperate, reveling in her warmth and her scent and the way she makes him feel. The way she can make him laugh the hardest and the way she can make him cry. Her quiet bravery, and her most embarrassing honesties, and her oddest statements.

He realizes what he has done and begins to lean back, opens his mouth, though he has no words to say, for he has just said everything- but Luna has words of her own. Even as he leans back, afraid of having given offense, she leans forward, and her slight hands cup his face, tipping it upwards. Her hair falls over them like a curtain and their lips meet, once, in a brush of a kiss that is simple and intimate and speaks plainly, thrillingly: _I love you. _They bump noses and it's awkward and yet somehow it's everything he had ever hoped kissing Luna Lovegood would be; Luna laughs, and the sound of it makes him remember life again, and beauty, and joy._  
><em>

The future may not be free of pain, but it will be free of fear.

The battle is over, and they have found each other at last.

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><p><strong>Please review! Pretty pretty please with Neville on top? Errr, wait. That sounded a lot dirtier than I meant it too. But, getting to the point, I would love to receive feedback on this piece. Feedback inspires me and helps my writing to improve. :)<br>**


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